Retired Show Jumper or Cow Horse?

With all this rain, no work to go to, and a slight case of cabin fever, I decided to download a few pictures taken on New Years day when Nick and I took Ron and Jori to visit Danny in his retirement home. Danny has been out at Endar for almost 7 months now and has seen his ups and downs. He has lost and gained over a hundred pounds, proudly displayed his battle scars, and become quite the furry, dirty pasture horse. But the bottom line is that he loves this life and deserves every minute of it.

I've recently started turning him out in the small arena to let him kick up his heals and role in the soft dirt. When I turned him out before, he always followed me, sometimes playing tag and sometimes wandering off to explore on his own. I thought once I moved him out to a retirement facility, he might slow down and act his age. Well, not exactly...

After he was done kicking up his heals, we played a game of tag. Is he a retired show jumper or cow horse...

I love my horse!!!

Happy 2010!

Life has been busy with the Henry's as we step foot into 2010. Nick is going strong at work mentoring employees and reaching new goals. I have been busy with 24 first graders (enough said!). The holidays were wonderful as we spent them with family and friends. Here are a few pictures to show what our life has been like the last few months...

Jori, Katie, and I getting ready for Dan and Jenelle's wedding.

Nick and I at Dan and Jenelle's wonderful wedding on October 24th.

Kyla decked out as a bumble bee for Halloween!

Nick and I on Halloween dressed as baseball coach and baseball player.

Danny enjoying retirement (and chasing me down in the turnout during a game of Tag.)

Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 2009 besting our time from the past 2 years. Kyla was our cheerleader with Patti and Jeremy.

Our first Thanksgiving turkey!

Big Bear Lake on the day after Thanksgiving with Kyla (Ron, Jori, and Zoey too).

Me, Katie, and Jenelle at the Mission Inn.

Nick, Dan, and AJ at the Mission Inn.

Christmas with the Pattersons!

Christmas with the Henrys!

Happy New Year 2010!!!

Kyla's 1st Birthday!

More to come.... =)

Life is busy...

If you find yourself asking, "Where have the Henry's gone?" I can shed some light on that question. It really doesn't have one answer but an intricate web of circumstances and events.

On September 8th, I officially started student teaching in a 4th grade classroom at de Portola Elementary School. Now, I'm used to the hustle and bustle of handling work, marriage, family, friends, horse, animals, and homework, but toss student teaching in there (removing work) and life gets turned upside down! I now have 29 9- and 10-year-olds to answer questions, tell them they can't sharpen their pencils when I'm teaching, inform them that it's inappropriate to hit their friends on the playground, remind them to not lay on the carpet like it's their living room, and educate them about the world/nation/state/etc around us. AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!! Did I mention that TPAs (Teacher Performance Assessments) have reared their ugly heads and expect to be written by, well, me in my abundance of spare time? Life is busy...

Nick has had his share of busy days, nights, and everything in between. To relieve our financial state while I'm not getting paid and to get back into the game, Nick has taken on being an assistant coach to a travel baseball team. This means two nights a week and one or two days on the weekends are dedicated to 12-year-old baseball players. To add to the mix, WaMu is having their "official" conversion to Chase during the month of October. Might I add that the major day of conversion is October 24th; the same day as Nick's brother, Dan, and our future sister-in-law, Jenelle, are getting married. Life is busy...

After a tear-filled phone call, Danny has been moved to his own private pen at Endar and has taken well to his current job of eating. He gets free-fed all day and is slowly packing the pounds back on. He has a nice view of the putting greens, pond, waterfall, and Spanish Ranch House on-site. Not too shabby! His furry coat has already arrived and is here to stay for the winter. I'm hoping and praying his brittle feet hold up in the wet winter months but that is a wait and see scenario. Can't El Nino skip the area of Temecula? I visit him weekly (with the exception of one weekend when my wonderful parents took the responsibility) and still make him a priority. Life is busy...

A few weeks ago, I celebrated Jenelle's Bachelorette Party in Santa Barbara while Nick celebrated Dan's Bachelor Party in San Diego. Girl's did girly movies, puffy-painting tank tops, wine tasting, and a night out on State Street. Boys did paintballing, a night out in Downtown San Diego, and breakfast the following morning. Both parties had a great time with lots of pictures and memories to remember forever. Their wedding is only a few weeks away and will be absolutely wonderful! Life is busy...

Nick and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary with a trip to San Diego. We saw Shamu at Sea World and enjoyed a stay at the fabulous Paradise Point Resort. Nick surprised me with wonderful dinner at Roy's and if I would have thought it possible, I would have eaten the plate that our chocolate souffle came on. Year One under our belt and feeling pretty darn good! Life is busy...

So with all that said, I hope I have thoroughly answered the question, "Where have the Henry's gone?" We loved every minute of Year One and we're excited for Year Two, even though life is keeping us pretty busy.

Hard to Look At

Yesterday I made my weekly drive out to Endar to visit Danny with my mom and Kyla in tow. My mom hadn't seen him in about a month due to her Alaska trip but I had just seen him last week. When we walked up to the pasture to pull him out for his weekly bath and carrot fest, I instantly had tears in my eyes. In just a week, he's dropped several more pounds and his ribs and hips have become much more prevalent. Meanwhile, the bully horse in is pasture looks fat as ever.

I pulled him out, curried the mud and dead hair off his dull coat, and gave him a bubble bath in hopes that he might look a little better. Even after the mud was gone, he still looked terribly skinny and emaciated. I always offer him a bucket of pellets to munch on while he gets groomed and he hoovered up the pellets like he was starving.

But he was generous enough to share his carrots with Kyla.

Not to mention he dove for any spare scrap of food on the ground that had fallen off the feed truck. With the increased number of bite marks all over his body, it's clear that he's just getting run off his food and not allowed to eat enough.

So I've sent an email to the lady that runs Endar requesting (and somewhat demanding) a change. Either a change of pasture or something needs to happen or I'm going to have to make make some decisions soon.

Starting a new chapter...

Today marks the "somewhat" end of my time working at URS for several months. The "somewhat" comes into play with doing freelance work while on personal leave but for the most part, I'm not reporting back to work until January 2010. I now start a new chapter in my life with the beginning of student teaching for my multiple subject credential.

I've been placed in a 4th grade classroom at de Portola Elementary School and have met my great cooperating teacher. Let's just say she has a lot to teach me with all her years of experience. I can't even begin to express my excitement with the lessons I'm going to learn, the experiences I'm going to have, and the knowledge that will be bestowed upon me. But with this new chapter comes anxiety, worry, and just plain scariness. I'm going to be responsible for possibly 35 students for 4 weeks in the coming months. BY MYSELF! Yikes!

So here I am on a Friday afternoon. With one chapter still open but the pages to my next chapter ready to be written. I know one thing's for certain. I'm going to hit the ground running on Tuesday when teacher meetings start and start sprinting on Thursday when students are welcomed back. At least I'll have good stories to share in the coming months of whirlwind...

Back to Our Routine

After spending 2 weeks housesitting my parents' house while they explore Alaska and Canada, Nick, Kyla, and I are back to our routine and back to our apartment. While reflecting back on the past few weeks, I've come to a few conclusions...

• I want my own house where I don't have to wake up to 20 kids in the swimming pool every Saturday and where I ALWAYS have parking.
• We've always grown up with multiple dogs that were normal but Kyla hasn't been "our dog" for the past 2 weeks. She's been Karra's personal torture machine.
• I big house is A LOT of work to keep clean.
• I do NOT have a green thumb. (I really hope I didn't kill my parents' rose garden.)
• With 900 satellite channels, we could NEVER find anything to watch.
• Don't discipline an 80+ lb Red Lab by hooking your middle finger in her collar. She's a brute! She will always win and your finger will likely end up fractured or some sort of not-so-goodness.
• Lazy Boy recliners are great for sleeping and not great for cuddling with your husband.
• When Kyla ran through the screen door, we had an instant doggy-door!
• I'm convinced Karra eats and digests metal fencing perfectly fine.
• And last but not least... It was awesome having the space to enjoy a BBQ with great friends and family!

So here we are, in our little apartment, watching something good on our ancient TV, and snuggling on our old couch with our puppy. Life is good!

Packing up and moving out...sort of...

Not since 1993 have my parents taken a REAL vacation together. I'm not counting the trips to see various relatives, weekends away at my horse shows, or the rare out-of-town weekend for some reason or another. I'm talking about a real vacation that takes planning, packing, and some serious thinking. Our 1993 vacation took the Patterson family to Canada for two weeks in August. This vacation is taking my parents to Alaska for a tour of Denali National Park and a luxurious cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver (I think, maybe I should verify that).

So this leads me to the "packing up and moving out...sort of..." Nick and I are packing up Kyla, Bailey, and our necessities to move into my parents house for the next two weeks. Other than the occasional need to pick up our junk mail, we won't really need to come back to our cozy little apartment. It's going to feel weird sleeping in my old bed...with my husband...and married. I've slept at my parents once since the night before my wedding and that was on the futon before a day of fishing (which I didn't really consider sleeping so much as restless napping). With our one year anniversary almost upon us, I'm amazed that it's been almost a year since that last night as a single woman, surrounded by my amazing girls, and anticipating the most wonderful day of my life.

Back to packing! Having just returned from Tahoe, I feel like we have to pack everything back up and then some. We not only need Kyla and her stuff. We need Bailey and her stuff. Plus work clothes, everyday clothes, gym clothes, hanging around the house clothes, swim suits, bathroom essentials, food items I just can't live without... The list goes on and I haven't even started making a list!

So with that said, Nick and I are taking a mini-vacation from our apartment and moving back into my parents home for two weeks. I should really stop thinking about packing and go pack. And so the lists start again...